Devices such as described within U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,338 entitled “Apparatus for Knee Prosthesis” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,350 entitled “Femoral Distractor for Use in Knee Surgery” are currently available for assisting a surgeon in knee surgery by employing means for insertion within the knee joint to retract or distract the femur from the tibia.
The use of such sterile pins, rods, or sterile spreaders and the like to provide insertion requires considerable time and effort to insure insertion in a precise and antiseptic manner within the joint space and thereby create enough space for instruments and implantable devices.
It would be highly advantageous to be able retract or distract the femur from the tibia during such knee surgery without having to insert any pins, rods, or sterile spreaders into the joint space thereby obscuring vision and occupying instrument space.
On purpose of the instant invention is to describe a simple and effective approach to femur distraction during knee surgery that is performed external to the knee joint, per se, for increasing surgical vision and surgical space when preparing to implant a prosthetic device.